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Home literacy environment: The impact of training on student achievement and home literacy environment practices

Abstract

This study was designed to measure the impact of parent training on the Home Literacy environment and the academic achievement of students enrolled in the second round of Reading Recovery in one school district. A Randomized Post-test Only Control Group Design was used to find out whether students whose parents were trained on HLE practices instituted these practices in the home; and whether the children of these trained parents scored higher on the Observation Survey (Clay, 1993) of authentic skills than students whose parents were not trained on HLE practices. ^ A parent questionnaire was developed by the researcher from research based HLE practices. Parents were instructed to respond and provide written comments to each of the 16 questions. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with a random sample of parents to gain further information. ^ Students' pre-test scores (n = 17) were analyzed using t-tests to control for initial differences between groups. Post-test scores from the six tasks of the Observation Survey were also analyzed using t-tests. In addition, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was run on the pre-test and post-test scores to adjust post-test scores for variability on the covariate; the pre-test of the Observation Survey. Furthermore, Parent responses from the questionnaire were analyzed using a t-test. ^ The total sample of parents are (n = 17). A total of 13 parents were trained, 9 of the 13 parents returned the post-test survey questionnaire. The 22 remaining parents, who were not trained, composed the control group of which 8 parents returned the post-test survey. The total sample of parents and students are (N = 34). Findings indicate that there are no statistically significant differences on the pre-test of the Observation Survey. T-tests of the students' post-test scores found no significant differences between treatment and control group scores on 5 of the 6 measures of the Observation Survey. However, there were significant differences on the Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words (HRSW) task. Hearing and recording sounds in words indicate phonological/phonemic awareness skills in children. Phonological awareness is an early reading skill necessary to distinguish separate sounds in individual words. Moreover, analysis of t-tests of parent responses to the questionnaire also revealed no statistically significant differences on the post-test scores of the HLE questionnaire. ^